The goal
Start real conversations with finance leads and owners at New Zealand businesses of 11 or more staff, beginning with Auckland professional services firms.
Emerge
Emerge is a New Zealand expense management platform. From one LinkedIn account, we turned 375 connection requests into 31 qualified leads and 14 booked meetings in 30 days, paid per positive reply.
31 qualified leads in 30 days
- 43%of connection requests accepted
- 14meetings booked
- 5.2×the agreed monthly floor of 6
From request to meeting
Every stage of month one, 17 August to 16 September 2026.
- 375Connection requests sent · from an approved list of 400 prospects
- 162Connections accepted · 43.2% acceptance
- 63Replies received · 38.9% of connections wrote back
- 31Qualified leads · confirmed by Emerge, reply by reply
- 14Meetings booked · in the first 30 days
Benchmarked by Emerge
Emerge’s head of commercial growth researched the industry averages and set the campaign against them. Their numbers, not ours.
Connection acceptance
Benchmark26–28%
Emerge43%
Reply rate
Benchmark7–10%
Emerge26%
Meeting conversion
Benchmark1.3%
Emerge13.4%
Cost per meeting
Benchmark$250–$1,500
Emerge~$211
The brief
The challenge
Finance leaders are pitched all day and move slowly. The agreed floor was 6 qualified replies a month, with a stretch target of 10, from a single sending account.
The approach
An approved list of 400 prospects and a three-message sequence, each message personalised to the person. The openers never mentioned Emerge or the product. Emerge reviewed every reply and paid only for the qualified ones.
The result
375 requests sent, 162 accepted and 63 replies. Emerge confirmed 31 as qualified leads, and 14 meetings were booked in the first 30 days.
